After Miramare I caught the bus into the city. I lunched at a place serving all kinds of pork, in sausages, boiled and so forth. More Austrian than Italian I thought. Good washed down with a beer though a bit pricey.
Then I boarded the Villa Opicina tram service at Piazza Oberdan. This turned out to be a unique ride, the sort train and tram enthusiasts go out of the way to experience. Initially the tram trundled through city streets. Then it entered the steep section. Here the driver backed the carriages into a low stub line onto a odd looking low carriage. This turned out to be a low profile cable tractor which pushes the tram up the slope and assists in braking going downhill, working on funicular principles. This section is steep, it ascends 160 metres with a maximum gradient of 1 in 4. There is a passing loop in the middle. Once up on the karst, the tram decoupled from the tractor and operated normally again.
I didn't go all the way to Villa Opicina, but got off at Obelisco, where there are some woods and walking paths. Those woods were planted by Austrians for timber but now were a recreational area. It was noticeably cooler and breezier there. There were views over the city of Trieste.
Villa Opicina is near the border with Slovenia. It's a village and rail junction, but the rail connection with Trieste docks takes a large detour south due to the karst, as you can see from the maps. It was this large detour that the tramway was built to bypass. All of this part of Italy is near the border, being confined to a narrow coastal strip. Just how close everything is in the region can be seen from the fact that I was perhaps only 25km by road from Divača, where I had visited the Škocjan Caves just over a week ago.
There is a civic museum in Trieste that I had not the nerve to visit. As the Allies had regained Italy starting from Sicily, the northern part of Italy remained in German hands up to the end of WWII. Trieste has the infamy of being the only place on Italian soil to have had a Nazi death camp. In 1944, the Nazis took an abandoned rice mill on the outskirts of the city, the Risiera di San Sabba and murdered Jews, partisans and other victims. It's estimated that 3000-5000 people were gassed, shot, or clubbed here. Thousands more were railroaded on to other death camps in Central Europe. Before they fled, the Nazis attempted to conceal their crimes by dynamiting the cremation oven. The space it used to occupy is visible in photos from the entrance.
I caught the bus back to Miramare but got off at Parco Miramare, which is the entrance to the park from the main road, rather than from the castle. I explored some of the other areas of the park I had left out in the morning. I encountered this friendly cat at a bench. I ate some peaches purchased in a supermarket but they were crunchy, not juicy.
The sea surrounding Miramare is a marine sanctuary and shags were sunning themselves on the rocks as I passed.
Back at the hostel, I found that I had two new roommates, English backpackers. They were looking for ferry options to Croatia. It seems that they were in Trieste due to the cheap Ryanair tickets. But why didn't they go straight to Zadar, which Ryanair also serves? Seems some people don't research the geography of their destinations.
At one point an intemperate older German hosteller came around to complain about our room door slamming because of the spring closer. Sigh, if he had wanted quiet, he should not have come to a hostel, especially one with dozens of schoolkids running around.
At about 2000 I walked back along the Viale Miramare looking for an eatery. Eventually I settled on a seafood place where I had a gnocchi with scampi and tartufo nero. Tartufo is truffle and is more affordable in this part of Europe. It gave the dish a complex earthy taste. I could understand why some people rave about truffle. It's not something I would like to have every day though. A family at a nearby table had an angelic looking child. I told the mother so: un angelo piccolo. She was quite chuffed by the compliment. The proprietor of the restaurant was very friendly. A most satisfactory meal before walking home in moonlight along the lungomare.
Villa Opicina is near the border with Slovenia. It's a village and rail junction, but the rail connection with Trieste docks takes a large detour south due to the karst, as you can see from the maps. It was this large detour that the tramway was built to bypass. All of this part of Italy is near the border, being confined to a narrow coastal strip. Just how close everything is in the region can be seen from the fact that I was perhaps only 25km by road from Divača, where I had visited the Škocjan Caves just over a week ago.
There is a civic museum in Trieste that I had not the nerve to visit. As the Allies had regained Italy starting from Sicily, the northern part of Italy remained in German hands up to the end of WWII. Trieste has the infamy of being the only place on Italian soil to have had a Nazi death camp. In 1944, the Nazis took an abandoned rice mill on the outskirts of the city, the Risiera di San Sabba and murdered Jews, partisans and other victims. It's estimated that 3000-5000 people were gassed, shot, or clubbed here. Thousands more were railroaded on to other death camps in Central Europe. Before they fled, the Nazis attempted to conceal their crimes by dynamiting the cremation oven. The space it used to occupy is visible in photos from the entrance.
Back at the hostel, I found that I had two new roommates, English backpackers. They were looking for ferry options to Croatia. It seems that they were in Trieste due to the cheap Ryanair tickets. But why didn't they go straight to Zadar, which Ryanair also serves? Seems some people don't research the geography of their destinations.
At one point an intemperate older German hosteller came around to complain about our room door slamming because of the spring closer. Sigh, if he had wanted quiet, he should not have come to a hostel, especially one with dozens of schoolkids running around.
